From nurse-centered health counseling to empowermental health counseling

Examination of aspects of the delivery and reception of advice and questions in interaction between nurses and patients described linguistic features that constructed nurse-centered and empowermental health counseling.

Abstract

The main goals of this study were to examine aspects of the delivery and reception of advice and questions in interaction between nurses and patients and to describe linguistic features that constructed nurse-centered and empowermental health counseling. The research data, 38 health counseling sessions, were videotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed by using an adaptation of conversational analysis. During nurse-centered discussions, the nurses' advice did not correspond to the patients' need for information. These counseling sessions began with check-up questions about the patients' condition and continued with factual questions about their illnesses and health care measures. During empowering health counseling, the nurses made use of the patients' knowledge of their circumstances and supported the patients' ability to reflect on their health behavior. Questioning and advising strategies were found to be crucial for building up empowermental conversation and enhancing the impact of health counseling.